*The prime time to love is everyday*
10 years is a long time to count,
Otherwise time flies in the blink of an eye.
10 years ago I was a child unwilling to live without my father.
So much must have happened within a decade.
I’m ten years older than when you first left.
Now, if you’ll allow your ten years older child to speak:
I’m glad life happened the way it happened.
It’s the tenth year since you left…
So much has been put at stake, some tears shed, some rejections, struggles we didn’t imagine.
If there’s anything left,
It’s Questions and Hope.
Questions that only a collective discussion between us can answer.
So that leaves me to rely on Hope- hope that good things happen to people who persevere (as you told me).
This day, I don’t know if I should celebrate or mourn.
Celebrate because never once did I feel like he was away even in absence.
Mourn because people don’t understand. Although we felt his care, the world couldn’t see his face.
It’s true, time flies…
Ten years and I didn’t realize,
Because there’s so much he left behind for me.
Of all the most important things-
It is our name, “Mong” which translates in Khiamniungan as “Heart”.
Dad, you left your heart with me
And it always overwhelms me.
You’re gone but never away or forgotten.
Your Aby,
Mongshai Longshe
